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Crude oil prices pass the 85 $/b mark – Daily recap – November 29th

November 30, 2010

Thanksgiving is behind us, and the week started with strong increases of crude oil prices and Natural gas spot prices as traders are bullish on major energy commodities. One of the reasons could be the publication of a report about the US consumption which, according to Bloomberg, is showing that a rise over Thanksgiving weekend, compare to previous Thanksgiving.

On the other hand, note that currently (as of 8.16AM GMT) crude oil prices (future prices) dropped by a small percentage of 0.18% (however still the prices are above 85$/b), seems like a correction after the bullish move from yesterday.

Here is the daily recap of price changes:

Yesterday, crude oil prices increased by a couple of percent points, including Europe Brent Spot Price, and by that passing the 85 USD per barrel mark;

Natural gas prices showed a big increase in the spot prices by 8-9 %, while future prices with January delivery (Nymex Henry Hub Future) declined by 4.3%. I think that the rise in Natural gas spot prices is because there was no trade in it since November 24th, and as the winter weather in Europe and North-east of US progresses, and showing a steep decline in the temperatures, the current consumption in Natural Gas is rising. On the other hand, in regards to the fall in future prices, it seems that traders might consider that future prices rose too high too soon as they have reached the 4.4 $/MMBTU mark last week on November 26th and was due for a correction.

Precious metals demonstrated a small inclination in their prices as gold prices and silver prices rose by 0.23% and 1.57%, respectively;

And finally, EURO/ US dollar continue to fall as the Euro compare to the USD declined by 0.88%. As the US economy showing a come back on the one hand, and Europe showing weakness as Ireland’s bailout plan from the European Union is still on the news, on the other.

Prices:

In the following table are the main descriptive data from last business day – November 29th including: settled prices, the daily percent change compare to previous business day, and the quantitative change in US dollars of each of these prices and exchange rates (except for USD/CAD, in which the change is in Canadian dollars):